These days, the trend of creating a new game
in a beloved video game franchise typically dictates that you have to
make the experience as modern as possible.
This
could include bringing a game from 2D into 3D, adding complicated
stories and making graphics as flashy as possible. In some cases, this
has worked extremely well, such as with the "Mario" and "Zelda"
franchises.
With others, the results have been less than pretty, like the 3D iterations of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series.
But it's practically unheard of for a game developer to decide not to move forward, but, rather, backward.
This is exactly what Capcom has done with their beloved "Mega Man" franchise.
Over
the years, the Blue Bomber has landed on just about every platform
under the sun, doing everything from fighting computer viruses to
playing soccer. But the "main" series, the games numbered one through
eight, were mostly found on the old Nintendo Entertainment System in
the 1980s and early 1990s and made brief appearances on the Super
Nintendo and Sony PlayStation.
Rather than build on the slick,
shiny 2D style of the PlayStation's "Mega Man 8" and try to "reinvent"
the series for the newer consoles, Capcom decided instead to make Mega
Man 9, a downloadable game for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The catch? It's entirely 8-bit.
The
game looks exactly like the old Nintendo games of yore, and the player
is capable of doing much more than he was in Mega Man 2. You can run.
You can jump. And you can shoot.
And that's pretty much it.
Even
the ability to charge your weapon - something of a staple of the series
for a long time now - has been removed. Mega Man is back to his true
roots.
The graphics are pixilated. The sound is a lot of "beeps"
and "boops." The story is cheesy and almost non-existent, and there are
deliberate graphical glitches and frame rate slowdown.
And the result is awesome.
The
game is an amazing throwback to the days when gaming was just starting
to take off. And, as was typical of many games back then, the game
doesn't keep you coming back because of its length - in fact, it can be
completed several times in one day. Rather, the game keeps you coming
back because you're simply unable to master it.
in a beloved video game franchise typically dictates that you have to
make the experience as modern as possible.
This
could include bringing a game from 2D into 3D, adding complicated
stories and making graphics as flashy as possible. In some cases, this
has worked extremely well, such as with the "Mario" and "Zelda"
franchises.
With others, the results have been less than pretty, like the 3D iterations of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series.
But it's practically unheard of for a game developer to decide not to move forward, but, rather, backward.
This is exactly what Capcom has done with their beloved "Mega Man" franchise.
Over
the years, the Blue Bomber has landed on just about every platform
under the sun, doing everything from fighting computer viruses to
playing soccer. But the "main" series, the games numbered one through
eight, were mostly found on the old Nintendo Entertainment System in
the 1980s and early 1990s and made brief appearances on the Super
Nintendo and Sony PlayStation.
Rather than build on the slick,
shiny 2D style of the PlayStation's "Mega Man 8" and try to "reinvent"
the series for the newer consoles, Capcom decided instead to make Mega
Man 9, a downloadable game for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The catch? It's entirely 8-bit.
The
game looks exactly like the old Nintendo games of yore, and the player
is capable of doing much more than he was in Mega Man 2. You can run.
You can jump. And you can shoot.
And that's pretty much it.
Even
the ability to charge your weapon - something of a staple of the series
for a long time now - has been removed. Mega Man is back to his true
roots.
The graphics are pixilated. The sound is a lot of "beeps"
and "boops." The story is cheesy and almost non-existent, and there are
deliberate graphical glitches and frame rate slowdown.
And the result is awesome.
The
game is an amazing throwback to the days when gaming was just starting
to take off. And, as was typical of many games back then, the game
doesn't keep you coming back because of its length - in fact, it can be
completed several times in one day. Rather, the game keeps you coming
back because you're simply unable to master it.
